Atwater Village is for Lovers

ARTWATER, APRIL 26TH

Artwater is back, and will be better than ever. The council has been working closely with Sonic Muze to sponsor this event, and I hope it's an enormous success.

Atwater Village Neighborhood Council, City Council Districts 13 & 4 in conjunction with Sonic Muze and Importante Gifts present ARTWATER 'A Celebration of Music and Arts' Festival on Saturday, April 26th from 2-10pm along Glendale Blvd. in the Atwater Village.

ARTWATER is an interactive music and arts festival featuring local Artisan vendors, chalk artists, two stages with musical and dance performances and various creative areas with activities for festival attendees to enjoy.

You can create your own succulent garden, rock paint and have your picture taking in some funky fun outfits with your friends!

The two stages will be filling the air with eclectic sounds from our local hot LA bands from various genres. Circe Link will entertain you with her cowboy and Omar Torrez will funk you out! Many other fantastically creative and exciting bands to be announced!

For your thirst quenching, there will be all natural Reeds Inc. ginger and rootbeers and Function Drinks. For the over 21, you can tantalize your taste buds with New Belgium Beer and wine from 55 Degrees.

Your appetite will be pleased with Flavors With Love barbecue cuisine and the local restaurants.

Local Atwater and surrounding area Artisans and John Marshall High students will have their art up for purchase. As well as, gallery openings and receptions at the local art galleries.

Paintings by Atwater Ave. Elementary School students will be displayed throughout the festival.

A presentation of paintings by Atwater Ave. and GlenFeliz to Councilman Eric Garcetti.

Chalk Artists will be creating portraits on the street and sidewalk for the chalk art competition.

ARTWATER raffle with many prizes already in place such as Miropoulsky painting valued at $1,500, Santa Ynez Inn mid-week stay with two complementary massages, Chocolate Sun gift certificate, and many more!

ARTWATER will benefit Sonic Muze raising funds for musical instruments and art supplies in the Atwater Village, Los Feliz, Glassel Park and Silver Lake area schools.

COME EXPERIENCE ARTWATER AND ATWATER VILLAGES' SHOPS, ART GALLERIES, RESTAURANTS AND OTHER LOCAL MERCHANTS!

AVNC Meetings This Week

TONIGHT!

AVNC Budget & Finance Committee Meeting, Tuesday April 8, 7PM

Atwater Village Neighborhood Council Budget & Finance Committee Meeting
Leonora Gershman- Committee Chair
Tuesday April 8, 2008 7:00pm-8:00pm
Pat and Oscars Restaurant
2921 Los Feliz Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90039

Click here for the agenda. Fascinating!

Then! THURSDAY!

AVNC Board Meeting - Thursday April 10, 7PM

Meeting of the Board of Governors
7:00 PM Thursday April 10, 2008
Christ’s Church at Griffith Park - Community Room, 3852 Edenhurst Ave.
Los Angeles, California 90039

Click here for the agenda. Daunting!

Shootings in the area

Anyone else notice the swarm of helicopters over our corner of LA on Thursday? They were all watching this go down.

From the LA Times article:

The violence began around noon when a 37-year-old man police described as a bystander was shot more than a dozen times by suspected gang members as he held the hand of a 2-year-old girl. He later died. The toddler, apparently picked up by a passerby and carried to safety, was not wounded. As the gunmen drove off, witnesses told police, several pedestrians who apparently knew the victim opened fire on the car.

My God.

Then this.

From the LA Times report:

Steve Garcia, 26, a Latino man, was shot and killed while sitting inside his car at 2791 Carillon St. in Atwater Village at about 2:43 a.m. Friday, Feb. 15. According to police, Garcia and a woman were sitting inside the car when a suspect or suspects approached the vehicle and fired several shots. Garcia was hit multiple times and the woman was hit in the arm, said Officer Richard French of LAPD's media relations office. Garcia was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was hospitalized and in stable condition, French said. The suspect or suspects may have fled in a Toyota Corolla, police said.

The Things We See in Beautiful Atwater Village

Today on our morning walk through North Atwater we saw the most magnificent thing.

We were walking along the river with Molly Malone, the wee Scottish Terrier who runs this house, and on the other side of the chain link fence, we saw a neighbor walking about seven dogs of varying breeds.

And one white goat.

One goat and a gaggle of dogs.

Apparently the neighbor noticed that goat seemed attention starved, so he got to go on their walk with them.

Tell me where else in Los Angeles is that going to happen? Only in beautiful Atwater Village.

Atwater Village Neighborhood Council Needs YOU!

Fill a Vacancy Position on the AVNC Board!!

The Atwater Village Neighborhood Council Needs You!!

Fill a Vacancy Position on the AVNC Board!!

Sign Up! Help Out! Get Involved! You Can Make a Difference!

New Board Members will serve until the next official election to take place Oct., 2009.
The following 4 positions are available:

1 Business Representative
3 Special Interest Representatives

The Deadline to Apply is Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 5:00 PM.
To apply, follow these 3 easy steps:

Complete a one-page application stating who you are and what your Stakeholder status is (resident, business owner or employee, churchgoer, park user, community group member, etc.). Write up to 100 words telling why you want to serve on the AVNC Board. Use the application at www.atwatervillage.org or at the Atwater Village Public Library, 3379 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039 and follow the delivery instructions noted here.
Mail or hand deliver your application and statement to 3371 Glendale Blvd Unit 105, Los Angeles Ca. 90039. (323) 634 AVNC Applications must be received at the post box no later than 5:00 PM. Thursday Dec 6, 2007
Come to the Dec 13, 2007 Board Meeting and speak for up to 2 minutes about why you want to serve. You will be notified of the location.

Application available here: http://www.atwatervillage.org/pdf/12-07candFileW-100word.pdf

Lots of goings on going on

- We had our first meeting of the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council last week, and according to the Friends of Atwater Village, all went well. Thanks for keeping tabs on us, FAV - I look forward to working with you.

- I can't seem to find any info online, but tomorrow, November 15th at 6pm, is the annual "Turkey Shoot" at Chevy Chase park. Don't worry, no turkeys will be harmed. Except for the ones that we're giving away. But they were already harmed. Humanely, assuredly. In any event, it's a fun night for the kids, who play basketball to win a Thanksgiving turkey.

- Miles has an excellent blog that has some excellent news about more fun businesses opening up on Glendale Blvd. A boutique? Another Vietnamese restaurant? MON DIEU!

- As always, Newbie keeps us all up to date for all the happening happenings.

- The Atwater Village Neighborhood Council is looking to appoint a few more council members. Interested? Let me know!

Halloween round-up

My fellow AVNC board member, Luis Lopez, documents the great success that was Trick or Treat on the BOOlevard. Look at all those cute kids! Great work, everybody. Sorry I couldn't be there.

Here's my very cute personal Halloween story. My fiancé and I were going to a small gathering in Montrose last night, but I felt terrible that I wouldn't be there to hand out candy. We compromised by leaving a bowl full of candy on our doorstep. It certainly occurred to us that we come home to find that the bowl would have disappeared along with all the candy, but I had faith in our Atwater Village kiddos. We came home to find that indeed, people had taken a lot of the candy, but not all of it, and that the bowl was safe and sound.

We raise good kids here in Atwater Village, methinks.

Top Ten Reasons to Love Atwater Village (culinary edition)

1) The Gourmet Chicken Sandwich at L.A. Bread on Los Feliz. I'm not exaggerating in the least when I say that this is my favorite sandwich of all-time. It's grilled chicken, melting brie, pears, and pesto on walnut raisin bread. Everything I've had there has been great, but that sandwich takes the cake. Ooh! Try their cakes! And the farmer's market salad! Perfect!!

2) A big heaping spicy incredible heap of steaming hot vegetarian curry from India Sweets and Spices. While the Bollywood movies blasting in the background are rad, this place gains no points for decor. Having said that, it's wonderfully inexpensive and fast. And really, really tasty.

3) The Prime Rib at The Tam O'Shanter. This is their specialty, and you really can't go wrong. I love their chocolate soufflé and lunch time sandwich board as well.

4) The Asia Roll, the Crazy Roll, and the Loster Truffle Mac n' Cheese at Asia on Los Feliz. Wow.

5) The Serrano ham plate, the heirloom tomato salad, and any beef dish at Canelé. Plus, the actual canelés that they give you on the way out are pretty amazing. I think it took some time for them to find their footing and live up to the great hype, but I believe they have. It's a great, cozy, fun, delicious place for dinner.

6) Pho Tai at Indochine Vien on Glendale Blvd. I've already written about how much I love the pho tai at Indochine Vien. It's, like, A LOT.

7) The spinach burrito, potato burrito, steak burrito, and street tacos at our local taqueria, Tacos Villa Corona. This place is what Atwater is all about.

8) Just walking by and smelling the amazing smells coming out of Baracoa Cuban Cafe is enough to get a mention here. Rice and beeeeans..ahglahglahglahgahalghghgla... [/Homer]

9) The cinnamon bun latte at Kaldi Coffee.

10) The crunchy, melty paninis from Toni's Bakery and Cafe. This place reminds me of some of the long-lost cafes of my childhood in Grand Forks, ND. What they lack in decor they make up for in taste.

What did I forget? What did I leave out? Tell me!

photo of Tam O'Shanter from the Tam O'Shanter site, Tacos Villa Corona photo from here.

Art Crawl this weekend

Northeast LA gets artsy fartsy this weekend, with the tenth annual Art Crawl! Our awesome Atwater Village galleries will be participating, so check them out.

J Ferrari Gallery - hey, J Ferrari, how about an Atwater Village shout-out on your About Page?

Little Bird Gallery

Black Maria Gallery

Pounder Kone Art Space - did you know that CCH Pounder has a gallery in Atwater? Did you also know that CCH Pounder has the coolest name in the history of Hollywood?

On your stroll, how about checking out some beautiful and funky kids' clothes at Mila Children's Boutique on the west (south?) end of Glendale Blvd, just a few storefronts down from Amelia Fitzwater, my go-to giftery. Hey, stop in there too! The really do have the cutest, whimsiest stuff around.

Show these independent merchants and galleries that Atwater Village supports small business and the arts. These are the businesses that care about Atwater Village and the people who live here. Support them! Keep Atwater Village a village!

I won!

I won! I won!

Looks like it'll be a great council with great people doing great things.

I'm excited to get started and get my hands dirty. Amazing things are in store for beautiful Atwater Village, and I can't wait to be a part of it.

Congrats to all the candidates - I hope each and every one of us stays involved!